We flew from Darwin to Adelaide at 2am on the 25th March. The flight was about three hours or so and was ok. We just read and napped a little. The first four nights in Adelaide we stayed in a backpackers in the city called Cannon Street Backpackers. It was probably the biggest hostel we've stayed in so far, as we've tried to avoid them in most cases as the smaller one's are usually better. This seemed ok, when we arrived . . . . pool table, table tennis, bar, restaurant (ish) and loads of rooms in lots of bright colours. However first appearances can be deceptive and it wasn't long before we realised that this hostel was a party place that we were not going to fit into - mainly because everyone was about 10 years younger than us! James seemed to think everyone was 15, but I pointed out they'd probably have to be 18 to be travelling? They were rude and loud, throughout the night! Ok, we're not golden oldies yet and we're not about to start complaining when we hear people having a laugh into the early hours, but these lot decided to pretty much make camp outside our bedroom door, where the hostel had conveniently placed some tables and chairs! After a fair amount of cheap wine they were shouting and screaming like a bunch of 12 year olds! Shit, maybe we are getting old? I'm sure I was no angel when I was in Australia the first time - no comments please Helens!! Anyway, as you can imagine we didn't get a huge amount of sleep for the first half of our stay in Adelaide.

The next hostel was in the beach town of Glenelg and we booked in here for our final 4 days in Australia. I actually stayed here 8 years ago and it was a lovely place then, but now it seems even better - they've developed it even more. There's loads more shops and gancy hotels and restaurants overlooking the beach. It's quite a bit quieter than the city hostel, but there's still plenty of nightlife around every corner and we're only a two second walk to hundreds of places to eat - too much choice sometimes, not good for the waistline!! Actually the juice bars are everywhere too, so we make up for any calories there!

During the days we wondered round the city shopping and testing the food courts out! We also spent ALOT of time in the state library over the first three days, so I could update the blog (7 hours of hard work, so hope you're still enjoying it!) and we could book some hotels for Asia. Adelaide is really nice and in fact James says if he lived in Australia he's pick Sydney or Adelaide! It's a smaller city than Sydney or Melbourne, but bigger than Perth and Darwin. It's got hundreds of churches and other historic buildings and boasts some excellent shops and markets. The people of Adelaide seem pretty chilled and there's no beeping of horns like in some of the bigger cities, so it definitely gives the sense of a more laid back city.

We spent some time visiting Museums and Art Galleries. The South Australia Musuem in the City was particularly interesting, focusing on the Aboriginal culture and history - it taught us alot about what has been and how things are changing. We also took a trip up to Mount Lofty, which gives you the most amazing views of the whole of Adelaide City. On the way here we stopped in the Haighs chocolate factory (run by a local family and very successful, with many quality shops around Australia) - Frances you would have loved this!! We saw how the chocolates are made, most of them still by hand as the family want to retain the traditional artisan skills in chocolate making, by hand decorating peppermint creams and hand rolling truffles (just some examples of what we saw in the small almost Wonka style factory). It all looked delicious and we tried some of the honeycomb chocolate which was delicious!

We took a tour bus to Hahndorf, Australia's oldest surviving German Settlement, and it was literraly like taking a step back into Europe, with all the Autuminal trees and brick and stone buildings. The town has lots of souvenir shops, as well as art galleries, fudge shops, a cheese celler and of course a butchers with a window full of an expance of German sausage! It was lovely to walk around, taste the fudge and goats cheeses and just soak up the relaxed atmosphere - definitely worth a stop if you're in Adelaide.

We also went on an afternoon tour around some of the wineries in the famous Barossa Valley (home of Jacobs Creek). The views around the valley are amazing and all you see for miles is vines and lovely old buildings, most of which the homes of the wineries. We stopped at three different places to taste the wine they made, each offering a different view and a variety of tastes. James went for the light and sparkling whites and rose's while I happily supped away at some of the tastiest reds I've ever had, along with many ports that were delicious - just no room in our bags to carry a bottle around! Bryan, you'd have been in heaven!! I also tried a mead at the last vineyard, which is a fortified wine made with honey and served warm. It smelt like Mulled wine, but tasted like warm watered down honey, so I quickly sampled a 1962 white port to take the taste of the mead away - any excuse!

The final highlight of our time in Adelaide was when we were at the cinema - sounds pretty boring I know! However we were waiting in the foyer for our film to start and in walked Jack Johnson with his wife and two kids! Excellent, our first celebrity spot of the trip!

So while I type this it's the 1st April and tomorrow morning we go to the airport for our midday flight to China! We're both really looking forward to this now, as must admit, despite how much we've been getting up to we're verging on boredom now and are ready for a new adventure - so let it begin - bring it on Asia!!

 Keep reading and I'll write again as soon as I get chance . . . .